


could you tell me..?

by cnrviclevi



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Gore, Bottom Connor, Bottom Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Bottom Upgraded Connor | RK900, Connor (Detroit: Become Human) is Bad at Feelings, Depression, Detroit Police Department (Detroit: Become Human), Deviant Connor (Detroit: Become Human), Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fanfiction, Gavin Reed Being an Asshole, Good Dog Sumo (Detroit: Become Human), Graphic Description, Hank Anderson is Bad at Feelings, Hypothermia, M/M, Minor Kara/Luther (Detroit: Become Human), Minor Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed, Oral Sex, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pacifist Markus (Detroit: Become Human), Post-Battle for Detroit (Detroit: Become Human), Protective Hank Anderson, Rimming, Smoking, Smut, Suicide Attempt, Tags Are Hard, Tags May Change, Top Gavin Reed, Top Hank Anderson, Trauma, Upgraded Connor | RK900 and Gavin Reed are Police Partners, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:15:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28155204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cnrviclevi/pseuds/cnrviclevi
Summary: connor’s snatches hank’s gun as he effortlessly jumps onto the railing of the bridge. he points the gun at his head, his LED cycling yellow, as he makes eye contact with the lieutenant, whom froze in shock. “i’m sick of being in your way,” the deviant says before he hooks his finger around the trigger and synthetic tears trickle down his freckled cheeks.
Relationships: Hank Anderson & Connor, Hank Anderson/Connor, Kara/Luther (Detroit: Become Human), Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed
Comments: 5
Kudos: 39





	1. unhealthy habits

**Author's Note:**

> heyooo! how are you?? i hope you're doing well, and if not, that's okay!! its okay to not feel good *hugs* but everything will be alright! ily, take care of yourself yeah? i hope you enjoy this fanfic I'm starting, !!! it'll have multiple chapters !!! , ill update as frequently as I can!

20th DECEMBER 2039, 9:03:43 PM 

it's a calm and quiet start of the night, is what connor thought whilst taking sumo on his daily walk around his favorite park as hank was, yet again, way too drunk to even process his saint bernard dog wincing by the door. connor couldn't quite put a finger on what you'd call whatever he was feeling, but whatever that was made him clip on sumo's leash and head out before it'd get too late to.  
he kind of needed that walk, both sumo and him did.

lately, it's been getting harder and harder to take care of the lieutenant: you'd always find him passed out on the kitchen floor, a broken whisky bottle as well as a handgun sprawled out next to the large man. connor barely wanted to go into stasis anymore, afraid of what the lieutenant would do while he's "gone". he really didn't want to lose him, so he always pushed through, even when his stress levels never quite agreed with him. an attempt to self-destruct hasn't occurred yet, so connor mindlessly continued. 

the android sighs, his chest feeling a bit tight as the smell of alcohol wafts around the house. he shuts the door gently, keeping his head low. sumo bonks his head against the android's leg, obviously sensing something is wrong, even tho androids were never supposed to feel anything, to have emotions, so dogs technically never had anything to sense when it came to them, yet sumo did. after the revolution had won over the public's, as well as president warren's, heart, androids were given rights, finally being treated like living, breathing beings (even tho they never needed to actually breathe, but some find it calm, claim it cools their systems down. connor agreed on that. ): all thanks to markus. ever since the revolution, connor had started living with hank as he welcomed him with open arms. connor never entirely liked the idea of feeling, even tho he thinks he had started feeling before actually deviating, he just never mentioned it. connor slowly kneels down to the big ball of fluff and he forces a weak smile onto his artificial lips as he ran his slender fingers through sumo's soft fur. said dog's tail slowly starts wagging, his tongue extending and suddenly tackling connor down onto the floor. he starts lapping his tongue all over connor's face, bringing a genuine smile out of the man. sumo never failed at making him smile, tho smiling was still new to him, even tho the whole revolution thing happened over a year ago, he still wasn't used to it.

he thinks he looks quite awkward smiling, so he tries not to. he doesn't have many reasons to smile, anyways.  
would you smile if the most important person in your life is dependant on drinking and only consumes fast food alongside alcohol? 

connor certainly wouldn't, but after taking off sumo's leash once he got the dog's large tongue off him, getting up and locking the front door, he heads into the kitchen, quietly. he wipes the dog's saliva off his face with his uniform's sleeve. he isn't surprised seeing the lieutenant passed out on the floor again, along with two whiskey bottles and, of course, a handgun. to say it was an excruciating sight to see would be an understatement. connor slowly picks the bottles and the handgun up and places those on the table, finding yet another picture of hank's deceased son: cole. his eyebrows furrow softly as he picks the framed picture up slowly and scans it. his system found human tears, more specifically hank's tears, all over the picture. the android lets his eyes snap to hank, scanning his face, and his HUD informs him the man had been sobbing. suddenly, connor's chest just feels tighter, the slight happiness sumo had provided him with over the walk and the affection the dog showered him with via his tongue disappearing. when would the older man stop all of this? connor wondered. the fact he's basically a supercomputer and there's little to no chance he'd ever stop thinking doesn't improve the situation in the slightest.

maybe connor wasn't able to bring the man any happiness after all, even after fowler's pack of praising towards the brunette, claiming he has made hank a better man and that he should keep up the good work, he started doubting himself nonetheless. what was he supposed to think, anyways? having his, by now, owner, passed out on the floor basically every night when he thought humans only drink to forget about their problems, to cope with them. a weird coping mechanism, connor thinks, drinking won't solve anything, why not stay sober and properly find a solution, maybe talk to your damn android, who has feelings, too, and find a solution together?

it's weird enough hank only acts like this at home. in spite of having a hangover every morning, he was less lazy at work. 

connor started wondering if he himself was the problem, and even tho he might be a bit angry with the lieutenant never speaking about his problems to him, he wasn't any better. as mentioned, he wasn't quite used to his emotions, hardly ever able to identify any of them, so he never knew how to approach anybody on this subject, tho that topic might be an issue on it's own. hank was always drowning in his problems, either way, connor wasn't quite content with the idea of just adding more to it with his own bullshit. 

connor gently places the framed picture back on the table and kneels down to the human. "lieutenant?" he spoke softly, giving the man a soft poke into the cheek. "wake up, you passed out again," he continued before letting another unnecessary sigh slip past his lips. "lieutenant!" he spoke a bit firmer this time before slapping the male, startling a gasp out of him as his eyes shot open and connor's system identify a slight acceleration of his heart rate. "calm down, it's just me," connor gently reassured as he pulls the human up to sit by his right arm, slowly guiding it over his shoulder. "for fuck's sake, connor, i told you to stop slapping me..," hank muttered grumpily, barely able to keep his eyes open, really. connor's artificial lips form a discontent, straight line at the male's words before lifting him and helping him to the bathroom, this situation and procedure all too familiar to the deviant. he kicks the door to the bathroom open softly, helping hank to the bathtub. "oh no," the human muttered as his android set him into the bathtub slowly. he started wailing around a bit, not wanting to be drowned in ice-cold water like he always did whenever connor found him in this state, which was basically every day. connor suppressed the urge of rolling his eyes and simply flicked the water on, making the lieutenant scream and complain about the temperature. "turn it off! CONNOR TURN IT OFF!!" he demanded, clumsily slipping whenever he tried getting out that darn bathtub of his. connor stood still, fingers intertwined behind his back, not planning on obeying hank's demand. he waited until hank stopped screaming and wailing like a toddler to finally turn the water off. hank was panting, his body hardly adjusted to the change of temperature. he looks up at his android, who was, painfully obvious, unhappy with the lieutenant's action. 

hank didn't wanna hear it, yet he still asked: "what's got you so pissed lately? you always stare at me like you stare at all those fuckers we have to interrogate and i really don't like that."

"im sorry, lieutenant, but you can't expect me to be the opposite of frustrated and differing when all you do is consume intoxicating liquids to neglect your personal issues. you should seriously consult a professional-" connor gets cut off by hank raising his hand to stop him from talking, the human sighs. "i know, i know," he mutters. "then why don't you?" connor asks softly with an obvious hint of hurt and sadness in his voice. hank avoids eye contact with the brunette, his own eyebrows softly furrowing. "what time is it, connor?" he asks, avoiding his question. connor's eyes softly drift to the floor as he lowers his head a little. "it's 9:10:43 PM, lieutenant," he answers. hank manages to get out the bathtub, his stomach indicating it's planning on getting rid of those toxic liquids he had consumed earlier, his hand slipping to his stomach to hold it. at that, connor's doe brown eyes snap to the human's action out of reflex as well as curiosity, his LED circling a prominent yellow. hank takes note of the change of color he hadn't noticed earlier, his heart lightly clenching. he's well aware he might be the cause of connor's discomfort-, tho, who is he trying to fool? connor even stated that hank is the cause of his frustration, more specifically his actions were, but hank couldn't help it, he really couldn't, so he didn't, which is quite stupid, to say the least, but that's what depression and addictions influence you to do. 

he should serioulsy get therapy.

he knows connor would agree on that, maybe even support him, but hank is stubborn. 

"your stomach doesn't seem too content about the whiskeys you've consumed, either. i'll.. leave you to it, lieutenant," connor says, turning around and heading for the door. just as he was about to exit the bathroom, hank stops him by calling him out with his name, but he wouldn't turn around, stubbornly keeping the man facing his back. he places his hand on the doorframe. "yes, lieutenant?"

"stop calling me that when we're not at work, please. we talked about this."

connor's artificial heart clenches, he was hoping he'd say something else, something along the lines of asking for support, maybe considering consulting a professional like connor had advised him to several times before: but all he got was the man asking him to drop formalities at home, saying that we've talked about this already. connor silently leaves the bathroom, pulling the door shut behind him unintentionally firmly, too occupied with his thoughts to bother giving the man a reply. his HUD informed him he had to go into stasis tonight, but before he'd let that happen, he quickly heads into the kitchen, scans every cupboard, the fridge, and more for any alcohol-containing liquids or products, and fishes them all out of their hideouts. he let the six-pack of beer remain, completely restricting any alcohol consumption when your body got used to it involuntary could cause serious dysfunctions: it's just unhealthy to abruptly stop, and connor was aware of that, having google installed in your brain can have it's pros for sure. 

he could hear the obnoxious sound of hank throwing up moderately brutally, connor himself remaining unfazed by the disgusting sounds coming from the bathroom. he understood it can't be helped, so he doesn't judge. he had better things to do than judge anyways, as he was getting rid of everything alcoholic he found, emptying the bottles of alcohol in the sink first and after dumping it all into the trash dumpster outside. hank might get mad, but connor knew he'd have to take that chance to change something in hank's unhealthy lifestyle. not like he hasn't tried to change it before, but he hadn't had access to download an AX400 programming for doing chores like cleaning and cooking, until now (so he only managed to buy hank stuff like salad as he wasn't able to convince the human to cook for himself). he plans to download it tonight during stasis, if he ever lets himself go into that: it kinda really depends on hank.

connor enters the house after getting rid of the intoxicating products and locks the door behind once more. the brunette slowly approaches the sofa and sits down, sumo immediately jumping onto his lap, emitting a huff from the android. 

connor smiles, quite sadly actually, but he smiles, and he doesn't stop himself from doing so. he can't see his awkward smile in any reflection of himself, so he doesn't bother letting his synthetic muscles give up the smiling. being happy is important, after all, even for androids. sumo is his only source of happiness lately, and he plans to treasure this dog and protect him for as long as he can. "agh, shit!" hank cursed out of inside the bathroom as he slipped and fell, causing a heavy thud to echo throughout the bathroom. quickly, he got up and opened the door, exiting. connor doesn't spare him another glance, gently running his fingers through sumo's fur yet again. it's quite calming, honestly. connor liked it. hank doesn't like the lack of attention tho, but he refuses to talk about the issue, planning on ignoring the harsh clenching his heart is doing. the man obviously had no intention of fixing anything, at least from what connor could see and extract information from. sadly, he can't exactly interface with hank, so he doesn't know much of what's going on inside hank's head, but he could tell hank wasn't even trying. a synthetic tear escapes connor's eye as he blinks and listens to hank's footsteps slowly fading into the slight distance into his bedroom. not late after he hears the door shut he starts letting tears roll down his cheeks. who'd have thought taking care of the man you love would be so hard? connor isn't sure why the man refused to cooperate, to refuse to improve his health, but something he is sure of is that his tears were multiplying quite quickly and his thoughts slowly drift out of control. sometimes he hates feeling emotions, hates thinking. he lets a soft, pathetic sob slip, quick to cover his mouth with his hand, startled by the weird sound he had just emitted. sumo catches up on his behavior and winces softly, burying his face into connor's abdomen. connor couldn't help but sob again, burying his face in the saint bernard's fur, his other hand slipping to his own, perfectly styled hair, gripping it tightly. soon after crying for a while, he went into stasis, face sunken in the dog's fur, artificial tears staining his pale, freckled cheeks. 


	2. let it snow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heey :)) have you eaten yet? please drink some water as you proceed with my story!! you've gotta stay hydrated after all <3 ly, enjoy!! if you find any typos let me know!! ty!! i tried my best

21st DECEMBER 2039, 4:32:55 PM 

the drive to the precinct was quiet, maybe even a little too quiet for comfort, but both men took it as it is. connor was silently questioning the fact hank hasn't turned on his heavy metal music during the drive as he always does and planned on consulting him about it later. 

they're both silently sitting at their desks, working: sorting files and such, when suddenly gavin came running in, startling the whole room, really, excluding the people not giving a damn about the man. "hey! plastic doll!" gavin chirped, approaching hank and connor's desk with a devilish grin. connor slowly looks up at him, softly tilting his head to the side as a puppy would in silent question. hank didn't even bother, only gave him a quick glance as he lifted his coffee mug up to his lips and taking a sip. 

gavin slammed his hands down on connor's desk, that devilish grin of his not leaving his face. he makes eye contact with the deviant as he starts: "your replacement has arrived, you gotta get outta here". connor's eyebrows softly furrow, obviously confused. he hasn't been informed about this "replacement" gavin was babbling about, hank doesn't seem like he has any idea of what was happening either, but his words were enough to properly look at the shorter human. hank sets his mug down. "what the fuck do you mean with that?" he asks, "did you get yourself some kinda barbie doll and convinced fowler to replace connor with that? y'know that shit's for kids, right?" gavin scoffs at hank's comment, grin disappearing. connor cracked a little grin, eyes having wandered to the taller when he spoke. suddenly, an unfamiliar android emerged from behind closed doors, entering the precinct, curious grey eyes scanning the area in milliseconds. connor's doe eyes snap to him, quick to analyze him, and his eyes widen. he felt his artificial heart stop as his HUD displayed the android's identity: upgraded connor, an rk900. 

"no," gavin replies, "I got something much better than the shit you shove up your ass every day". hank rolls his eyes. gavin excitedly gestures to the approaching rk900. "tadaa!" he exclaims, weirdly happily. "gavin, what the fuck?" hank looked the rk900 up and down, realizing he looked a lot like connor. "you dumb? i already told you: connor's replacement. your memory's getting weak, old man," gavin explains, punctuating it with a chuckle. hank scoffs. "get this shit outta here," he demands, "I'm too sober to deal with this now."

connor stays silent, was he not good enough for this job? why'd they try to replace him? gavin would have needed fowler's approval, right? what did he do wrong? connor doesn't understand, so he tries asking: "am i not good enough for this job?" 

gavin looks at him as if it wasn't obvious before bursting into laughter. connor frowns softly. hank slams his fist onto his desk to stop gavin from laughing, gavin flinches and complies to hank's unspoken demand,"that's enough, gavin! i thought you fucking hate androids? what's gotten into you??" hank questions, a tense cease in between his eyebrows. "well," gavin starts, "this is an upgraded version of connor," he continues, placing his hand on the rk900's shoulder as he talks, smiling, "faster, smarter, stronger, more resilient, latest technology.. equipped with new features," he lists, "he's better looking, too." hank stays silent, connor feeling his not-stomach sink. gavin nods softly, as if to mock them silently before taking a breath and speaking again: "so, what 'cha waiting for? get out of here!" he rests his elbow on the much taller android, looking between connor and hank. connor lowers his head, slowly slipping his hands to the edge of his desk, slowly getting up, his LED cycling yellow. hank's eyes widen as he noticed the action in his peripheral vision. "hey! where the hell are you going?!" he exclaims before he could think about it, abruptly getting up, staring at connor in both fear and disbelief. connor snapped his head to the lieutenant when he yelled, standing by now. "I just need some fresh air, lieutenant. I'll be right back," he excuses himself before leaving after giving gavin a last glance. he keeps his eyes locked to the ground as the doors slide shut behind him. hank knows that's bullshit, needing fresh air when the brunette didn't even need to breathe, but he lets him do as he wishes. sometimes fresh air can be more than just another deep breath, he knew that. gavin was hoping connor'd leave for real, but was disappointed by the deviant's excuse, so he tsked, causing the lieutenant to huff. "don't even try, connor'd never dump me here to rott with you," he states, his ocean blue eyes piercing right through gavin as he leans back in his chair. connor won't leave. 

right?

connor's standing outside, slowly getting accessorized by snow as he watches the snowflakes fall. he loves the winter: fresh air, snow, christmas, pretty decorations all over detroit. it's very peaceful, too, unlike last winter where the whole revolution thing had taken place right downtown and all over the media. it's way less tense, way less stressful, excluding gavin's constant bullying at work. well, today he had gone further than that with that new model of his, and connor had no idea what to do. he sighs, no warm air to exhale, which would have shown up in a soft, little cloud from a human, but he's his own species, an android. he can't help but remind himself of that everyday, the LED attached to his temple not helping at all. markus had advised him to take it off, most deviants did, but connor didn't want to, he doesn't quite know why. he supposes it's because he was built like that, why'd he have to change just because now androids are being respected and seen as a new form of intelligent life? 

suddenly, the rk900 exits the precinct, his footsteps flitting through connor's audio processors. connor looks down as his eyebrows slowly furrow, he can't regonize this set of footsteps, the sound too unfamiliar. he slowly turn his head to look over his shoulder and his doe eyes land on the approaching android, the better android, his replacement-

"hello, connor," the rk900 greeted in a friendly matter, halting beside the smaller model. connor slowly resumes watching snowflakes fall and decorate the world. "hey," connor replies casually. the rk900 slowly intertwines his fingers behind his back, following connor's actions curiously by also watching the snowflakes fall as gracefully as they do. "I apologize on the detective's behalf," he speaks. "reed?" connor asks.

"yes, detective reed."

connor emits a soft hum, acknowledging the taller's confirmation without sparing him a glance. "it's fine, I understand." 

the grey-eyed android slowly looks down at the doe-eyed one. "are you sure? he wasn't being very friendly or mature there," he asks. "he's like that, you'll get used to it," connor states, "he never got anything good to say."

"I'm sure he has something good to him, too," the rk900 thought aloud. connor's lips form a soft, straight line, not commenting on that. he thinks about it, was there really anything good about the human? he was mean, unprofessional even, and always had something bad to say to him as well as hank. connor had enough reasons to dislike him, but he won't stand in the taller android's way of liking him if that's what he wants to do.

want.. does his new model want? he isn't sure how cyberlife is programming their newest androids after the revolution, doesn't know if they let them deviate, if they don't place the coding to make them obey to their masters or not, he supposes they don't, but even if they do, maybe that isn't so bad either. androids would be able to decide whether or not they want to spend their time obying orders or living an actual life. "is there anything you find good about him?" he asks, curios. "well, he's.. kinda adorable, to be completely honest," the rk900 replies. connor's surprised, "cute?" he asks for confirmation, finally looking at the taller. "cute," said android confirms, making eye contact with the smaller. connor hums, his system, already saving the new information about him. "do you have a name?" he asks, talking to him wasn't that bad, he figured, so he tries getting to know him better. 

"no," the grey-eyed robot replies "no, I don't," he resumes watching the snow fall in it's beauty, connor does the same. they fall silent for a while before connor starts speaking again, "richard."

"what?"

"let's call you richard?" connor says, "I don't want to address you as solely a robot." 

the rk900 considers it for a moment. "sure," he replies. connor smiles, his LED slowly cycling back into a soft blue.

"cool," connor says. richard's eyebrows softly furrow in confusion as he turns his head back to the smaller and runs a few more scans over him. every scan tells him connor is an android like he is, but why is he behaving so.. abnormally human? richard stays silent, not wanting to be rude. he's sure he won't forget connor. a simple world engraving connor's name in his artificial brain. "well, I should probably head back. i suggest you do, too. the lieutenant didn't seem too fond of your decision to leave," richard says. connor side-eyes him, "go ahead, i'll be there soon." richard wordlessly steps backwards, eyes fixated on the smaller model, before turning around and heading to the entrance, only to get surprised by gavin suddenly heading out. richard blinks, "detective?" 

gavin does as little as batting him an eye before approaching connor and gripping his styled hair, yanking him onto his knees from behind. connor grunts, caught off guard. richard stares, frozen in place. he's not sure what to do.

then, gavin steps in front of the doe-eyed android, flicking his temple. connor lowers his head, eyes wide. did he just.. feel pain? he runs a diagnostic over himself as gavin starts speaking, "didn't I tell you to leave?"

connor blinks, slowly looking up at the detective. "I don't see why I should listen to your commands, detective," he explains, his thirium pump slowly picking up pace. he's scared. gavin scoffs and grabs a fistful of connor's hair, only to raise his knee and slam the robot's head into it, causing connor to fall onto his side, barely conscious. richard's eyes are wide, synthetic pupils shrunken, watching the scene unfold. suddenly, he finds himself approaching the pair, gavin seeing the sudden movement in his peripheral vision. the detective's head snaps up, angry. "stay still!" he orders, and richard freezes, yet again. connor slowly pushing himself up onto all fours, dizzy. he slowly settles so sit on his heels, one hand on his head, the other bracing on, and sunken into, the 15cm high snow, only for gavin to place his foot onto connor's back and push him back into the floor harshly. "suddenly, you can feel pain, huh?" gavin mocks, "this might be fun," he mutters to himself, slowly pulling out his handgun. "well, if you won't leave, I'll have to make you."

red walls rise in richard's vision, the order "stay still" written over those. he slowly places his hands on them.

out of nowhere, hank bolts into the scene and richard snaps out of it. hank tackles gavin right before he was able to shoot, connor scrambling onto his feet, tears making their way down his cheeks. why was he able to feel pain? he didn't understand. he blinks several warnings away, his HUD informing him his stress levels are rising. he takes a deep, unnecessary yet very needed breath as his vision clears slowly. slowly, he moves his head to look at hank and gavin, reluctantly wiping his tears away with his uniform's sleeve. why was this happening.. he doesn't know, he never knew and doubts he'll ever find out. 

stress levels: 59%

hank fought with gavin, punching him, pulling his hair, making the detective bleed, until fowler saw what was going on through a window and intervened quickly once he got down there. he gives them both a warning, done with their childish behavior. hank looks at connor, panting, and quickly walking over to him, only causing connor to take a few steps back, startling hank. they both stared at each other, connor in hurt, and hank in shock, before hank breaks out of it and grabs connor's wrist, dragging him to his car. connor is barely processing what was happening, too occupied with his thoughts by this point, his stress levels only rising. hank mutters. "fowler gave us the rest of the day off," before getting connor into the passenger's seat and himself into the driver's. "we're going home." 

connor remains quiet, lost, and spiraling in his thoughts. hank runs a hand down his face in slight frustration before driving the two home.

"connor," hank tries, eyes fixated on the road. "connor, I hope he didn't break you? you're awfully quiet," he continues before forcing what sounded like a little chuckle out of himself, "usually you talk like a waterfall." 

silence. 

stress levels: 78%, his LED cycling red.

hank decides to let him be, seemingly already forgotten what high-stress levels do to deviants. heck, he has no way of knowing connor's stress levels are rising in the first place.

unless they'd communicate, but that doesn't seem to be in their dictionary at the moment.


	3. emotions suck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope you've eaten and slept well, dont forget to stay hydrated too!! ly, enjoy

23rd DECEMBER 2039, 5:43:22 AM

it's a calm, yet tense, morning for the two.

the day before, they haven't really talked much once they had arrived home. there was a lot to talk about, but neither made the effort of doing so with the other: so hank just went to bed, and connor took care of sumo: refilling his food and water bowls, letting him do his business in the backyard and after they cuddled on the sofa, watching TV together. it was a semi-good distraction for connor, he was reading through the updates the AX400 program had provided him with ever since he downloaded it, his stress levels going down.

that's how he spent his night, as he didn't have to go into stasis that night, he just cuddled sumo whilst watching TV and reading the new program formula.

connor is making coffee for the lieutenant, who got another hangover. the robot left a sticky note attached to a cup of water by the human's bedside table, the sticky note reading: "good morning, lieutenant". 

hank groans as he sits up, emerging from his bed due to his alarm clock annoying the shit out of him this early in the morning, turning it off grumpily. he sighs, hunching his back, rubbing his face, before spotting the yellow sticky note along the glass of water. carefully, he takes the sticky note off, huffs softly at connor not dropping formalities yet again, and then proceeding to chug the water down. his head hurts like shit, he's not sure if they even have any painkillers anymore. if they had any, connor would have surely given him some just as he did the water. connor heard the slight shuffling in the bedroom and decides to try to greet his human. he sets the coffee mug down, which was steaming deliciously, on the table, before heading to hank's bedroom. just as he was about to open the door, hank opens it and they freeze at the unexpected meeting, faces barely 10cm apart. they stand a little in awkwardness, a soft blue softly tinting connor's cheeks. hank awkwardly rubs the back of his neck as connor lowers his head, clearly embarrassed by the proximity. "good morning, hank," the brunette spoke softly. hank smiles lightly, and sighs. "good morning, connor," he says before walking past him and entering the kitchen, smelling the coffee already. "did you- make me coffee?" he questions, carefully slipping two fingers into the ring of the mug, picking it up. "yeah, I figured you needed it," connor replies, slowly lifting his head and turning around, trailing after the man out of flesh and red blood. "since when are you able to make coffee without a proper coffee machine?" hank looks at connor as the brunette approached his side, hank's eyebrow lifted in silent confusion. his coffee machine had broken some time ago, ever since he had to drag his strong body to work, relying on the coffee machine there to fill him with caffeine, with energy for the day, in some way. "I've downloaded the programming of an AX400," connor admits, straightening his tie slowly, not making eye contact with the older, "I'm able to take care of the house now, do the cooking, and much more."

hank blinks.

"what for? i can take care of all of this on my own," the human claims, taking a careful sip of the hot coffee. connor looks at him this time, "then why don't you? its a mess here," he says bluntly, eyebrows raised. hank huffs, setting the mug down slowly. "I.. have my reasons," he replies. 

connor tilts his head, doe eyes silently questioning the lieutenant. hank's eyes wander to the smaller without turning his head, he rolls his eyes. "use those puppy eyes in the interrogation room, might be more helpful," he chuckles. connor cracks a tiny smile at that and hides it by lowering his head again. "sure thing, hank." maybe today wasn't gonna be such a bad day as connor had anticipated it to be. hank is still the adorable, goofy, admirable guy he fell in love with. every hero has their dark side, their shadow that follows them wherever they go. "hey, um," hank starts, connor's eye locomote to hank's. "I think you should stay home today," hank says. connor narrows his eyes softly. "why's that?" the man made out of biocomponents and blue blood asks. hank's lips form a straight line, connor's doe eyes following the subtle movement and lingering on the man's lips longer than necessary. hank looks at his coffee mug, hands braced on the table gently. "why should you after what happened yesterday?" hank replies with another question. connor looks at the man in slight disbelief, "are you underestimating me, lieutenant?" 

"connor, drop the fuckin' formalities already."

"no," the robot says, hank's eyebrows softly furrow in confusion, "connor, don't be childish now, I just asked you to respect me. i really don't wanna be reminded of my position everywhere I go," hank explains. connor supposes he's right, his not-stomach starting to feel a bit weird. "I'm sorry, hank," connor apologizes, a little ashamed of his irrational behavior. hank seems to understand that: the android was never really allowed to feel anything, and even tho they were given rights a little over a year ago, connor still hasn't properly adjusted. emotions are a bitch, hank knew that. god, he knew it so damn well.

"don't worry about it," hank dismisses him, grabbing his coffee mug by the ring and taking another sip of it. "emotions can make you do irrational things, make you do and say things you might regret." connor hums softly in silent acknowledgment as well as reluctant agreement. he had noticed that, too, emotions making him do irrational things, say as well as do things he does regret truly, he just never thought it'd ever show, nor did he think it was okay. connor's eyes drift to the floor, LED cycling yellow. "but that's what makes you human, I guess," hank continues, "we can't cope with emotions either, really. we just try our best to carry on living in this shithole. try to be.. happy, whenever we can." hank mutters. 

"interesting," hank hears the deviant mutter and looks at him. he lets a small smile tug on his lips before he spots connor's LED cycling yellow. he sighs. "I refuse to stay home," connor states, looking up, determined. hank isn't happy with that. "connor, seriously, take a fuckin' break," hank conters, irritating connor further. "no, I'm perfectly capable of going to work, hank. i don't see why I should stay home just because gavin hates me." hank's heart clenches at the deviant's words. he was right, gavin did hate him, both of them, but gavin wasn't always like that. hank supposes that can't be changed now, not by them anyway, but everything connor goes through just because he's different: different than humans were. heck, he's his own species quite literally. "I don't want him to beat you up again, your programming doesn't seem to include things as self-defense," hank says. they fall silent for a moment before connor heads to the door, hank follows him with his eyes until he had to turn his body to continue doing so. "hey-, hey, where are you going?!"

"to work," the android says, a little pissed. hank huffs and sets his mug down unintentionally firmly. "connor, I told you, do not go!" he raises his voice a little, irritated. "don't tell me what to do! or am I just in your way there?? " connor exclaims, raising his voice to hank's volume level. connor gestures to himself with his hands, " am i the fucking reason all you consume is alcohol?!" 

hank's eyes widen in shock, heart clenching at the smaller's words. he walks over and grabs connor's wrists firmly, tugging both into one of his big hands and pinning connor against the wall, startling a gasp out of the smaller. "listen, " hank starts, "if you can't tell: I'm worried about you, connor," he continues, his gravelly voice slipping into connor's audio processors as he speaks. "please..," hank whispers, "take it easy, at least.."

connor's HUD informs him of the acceleration of his thirium pump, and he runs a quick scan over the human, noting a slight acceleration in his heartbeat and dilation in his pupils as well. connor swallows silently thickly, unnecessarily. his cheeks a tint of blue, yet again. "I'm sure i'll be able to handle," he speaks, "i'll be fine, hank, don't worry about me." hank slowly loosens his grip on connor's wrists. "I'm not the one dependant of alcohol after all" the android mutters. hank's heart skips a beat, startled. "excuse me?"

"you heard me."

he did, he just wasn't sure why connor'd remind him of it. hank slowly lets go of connor's wrists, who keeps them where hank had pinned them before slowly retracting them down to hang by his sides. he slowly slides his hands into the pockets of his pants and turns his head away from hank, tears silently threatening to fall. connor feels like he's been crying a lot lately, just not in front of hank. he notices sumo slowly approaching the two men after, his gaze softening at the big dog greeting them. he kneels down to the saint bernard, slowly slipping his hand out his pocket and placing it, with retracted skin: showing the polished white plastic underneath, onto the dog's head, giving it a soft rub. "hey, buddy," connor greets softly, sumo's tail wagging lazily. hank kept silent, watching the two interact. "you really didn't have to mention that one, y'know?" he says in barely above a whisper, but connor's audio processors caught up to his words and he lets a sigh slip past this lips, rubbing sumo's head. "I had to, this can't continue," he says. "don't you think I'm already working on it, con?" hank asks, frowning, his chest feeling heavier. connor stays silent. "don't you think I already know this isn't alright?"

"you don't seem like you're trying to fix this. i offer you my support, but you barely take it," connor states almost emotionlessly, sounding more like he's explaining something in a professional matter. he spoke the way he did before deviating. it scares hank a little. "trying doesn't always start on the outside," hank says, disappearing into his bedroom, picking up fresh clothes out of his closet, and changing into them. connor slowly gets up, head turning into the direction of the still dimmed bedroom hank had gone into. sumo's quick to run into hank's bedroom as well at the loss of attention. hank had a point. trying consists of convincing yourself to try, too. 

connor hears hank's huffed laugh and sumo's happy panting. his heart aches. he remembers: yesterday, he started feeling physical pain, and he still doesn't know why. is it some kind of update for deviants? for a more realistic "experience"? he isn't sure, so he disappears into his superbrain and does some research whilst hank is changing, LED still cycling yellow out of more than one factor now (researching, progressing information, but also feeling negative emotions).

once hank was done changing into his dark blue, white-streaked shirt and some grey cargo pants, he throws on his coat and they head out to work without exchanging another word.

the drive is silent, again. connor's internal clock reads 6:39:15 AM once they arrive, park and exit the car. the silence was almost suffocating. connor misses the loud, heavy metal music hank used to put on wherever they drove to. he wonders what happened. wonders why hank had stopped. so, he decides he should ask: he forgot to do so yesterday, too busy with his stress levels that he had to lower by himself. sumo helped, he guesses.

he really loves that damn dog.

problem is he also loves his damn owner.

they walk through the thick, glistening snow. the snow lightly crunching under their feet due to their weight. "lieutenant?" connor starts, retrieving a hum of acknowledgment from the human, whom attempts looking at the smaller only to slip on the ice of a small, frozen puddle of water, falling backwards. connor catches him before he'd crash into the floor and cause himself some serious injuries, holding the lieutenant by his back and waist, their faces are incredibly close to the other again. they both stare into each other's eyes, seemingly getting lost before gavin decided to ruin it. "woah woah, don't fucking kiss now, would ya?" hank flinches, quickly getting back onto his feet and shooting gavin an annoyed glare. connor blushes a soft blue, embarrassed, thirium pump accelerated. gavin scoffs, richard slowly emerging from behind him, looking emotionless. "what i do in my private time is none of your business, reed," hank huffs.

"I'm starting to think this is the only reason you decided to keep your plastic toy," gavin says, crossing his arms smugly. "must be for your own fucking pleasure. wasn't expecting you to get this lonely" the shorter human continues. hank clenches his fists. connor remains unfazed, at least on the outside. "tho," gavin carries on, looking the rk800 up and down throughout-ly with slight judgemental eyes, "i don't see how you could have any fun with an rk800, is he equipped?"

"gavin," hank warns, slightly mad. "what? just asking. he wasn't made to be used as a sex toy, right?"

hank was about to bark back at him with some curse word out of his novel thick cursing dictionary but connor intervenes before he was even able to take another breath, " i don't think it's any of your business whether or not I'm in possession of any sexual programming, let alone am equipped with some kind of genitalia. after all, you'd never be granted access to those."

gavin, richard and hank look at him, only the humans slightly surprised that he's talking. gavin tsks. "now you talk?" he asks. "i talk whenever i want, detective," connor states. hank cracks a small smile and braces a hand on his hip as he gestures for gavin to fuck off with his other hand, "it's too early for this, get your ass back inside." gavin huffs, taking a step forward to smack some sense of respect for your superiors into connor, but richard is the one intervening this time by placing his hand on the detective's shoulder. gavin snaps his head to the taller android, looking at him over his shoulder as he stood behind the human. richard shakes his head no, silently suggesting this isn't a good idea. gavin gives in reluctantly, rolling his eyes and showing connor the finger. both make their way back to the entrance of the department when connor decides to talk again, " also," he starts, catching hank's, richard's, and gavin's attention, "if you're so hot after android sex, you might as well update yours. tho, i think the self-lubricant protocol would be unnecessary, considering your phallus' size in length and girth. i haven't seen it, but from the way you behave, i can tell it's far below average. you should consult a doctor." hank bursts out laughing. richard doesn't show any reactions besides a small smile as gavin starts wailing around like a toddler. he drags the detective back inside, brighter than the christmas decorations all over detroit.


	4. hank-napped

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yo yo yo how y'all doin?? hope youre well! ily, drink some water! enjoy <33 lemme know of any grammar mistakes and all pls! my brain is all over the place

23rd DECEMBER 2039, 7:02:33 AM

after their little encounter with gavin and richard, the pair proceeded to enter the department, headed into the precinct, and had settled at their respective desks once there.

it wasn't long until fowler had called them into his office, and that not exactly kindly, which got hank grumpy in return. now, hank is sitting opposite fowler inside his office, connor standing next to the lieutenant with his hands intertwined behind, and his back straight, shoulders lightly pushed back. fowler is scrolling through something on his computer as he starts talking, "I'm assigning you two a case," he starts, "several other detectives have tried cracking it, but they all failed. you two are basically our last hope on this one." hank snorts, "sure," he says, leaning back in his chair, smiling lightly, "what's it about?"

"it involves several deviants, some believe it might be some kind of gang, that kidnap human beings and attempt 'upgrading' their human bodies with spare android parts they stole out the junkyards all over detroit." connor makes a face at that. that sounds sickening, really sickening. hank's eyebrows furrow softly, "psychopaths," he comments. "yeah, no shit. you two will be taking care of this," fowler says, pointing at the pair. hank sighs. "sure, sure, jeff, calm down, will ya?" hank says, jokingly raising his hands in easy defeat before getting up. "is that it?" he asks, lowering his hands. fowler hums, "so far, yeah. I'll send you everything we got on 'em so far."

hank nods before, surprisingly calmly, leaving fowler's office. connor watched him go before looking at their superior and bowing in respect. "have a nice day, captain."

the deviant walks out, shutting the door out of glass behind gently and heading after hank, who's already back in his chair, scrolling through the now sent, and delivered, files fowler wanted to provide them with. "oh fuckin' hell," the human curses under his breath after opening a file that had several pictures attached to it. in one of the pictures you could see a dead human body leaned against a clean, white wall. red blood pooling on the victim's stomach, thirium smeared across their face, an audio processor rammed into the spot behind their ear, several spare eye parts of androids in different colors all jammed all over the victim's body. it's a disgusting sight to see. hank sighs. connor leans down, standing next to the lieutenant's chair, a hand braced on the back of the chair whilst the other's braced on the desk, taking a closer look at the pictures. hank looks away, deciding he had seen enough of those, side-eying connor's slender fingers softly swiping on their high-tech keyboard, seemingly analyzing the evidence they've got so far. "there's an address," connor speaks, doe eyes focused on the screen, hank peeks at him. connor turns his head to the lieutenant, bringing their faces, unintentionally, closer. to the point they only have mere centimeters in between, causing connor to, surprisingly, stutter and stumble over his words: "w-we should- probably check it, um.., out- or- or something." slowly, connor pulls away, straightening his back, creating more distance between the two: at least between their faces. it takes a few seconds before hank responds, still a little caught off guard by the sudden proximity they'd had, as well as connor becoming visibly flustered (which he isn't quite used to). "yeah," he mutters, getting up, "yeah, you're right. let's go." the human heads to the exit of the precinct, connor's eyes following him, "now?-" the deviant asks, getting cut off by his human, "if not now when then?" hank speaks loudly across the precinct. connor's cheeks flushed a soft blue before he starts hurrying after the lieutenant. richard watched that scene unfold from afar, more specifically the little kitchen area gavin was talking to tina in while drinking coffee. he finds connor's behavior beyond interesting. 

the location they had gotten lead them to an abandoned hospital. everything inside thrown over, broken apart: ruined, except the walls. the walls were clean, white, just like in the pictures, but those were shot at a different location. connor and hank enter, the deviant running a quick scan over the first floor of the 20-floor hospital. hank makes a face at the smell they're being greeted with. "why did I agree on this," the human mutters to himself. connor walks along a wall, letting his fingertips slide along the surface of these clean, white walls. him having retracted the skin over his fingertips provides him with information about those easily. hank looks around, slowly following the deviant. "there's absolutely no traces of blood, dirt or such on these walls..," connor says, "I don't understand how everything is a mess, but these walls aren't..", "maybe they're this clean because someone keeps cleaning 'em," hank suggests, crossing his arms. connor hums, "that's an option." hank smiles lightly. "I'm surprised you're still able to think with that hangover of yours," connor mutters, but hank hears. he might be old, but he isn't deaf. the human averts his gaze to the ground silently. connor and hank continue going deeper into the abandoned estate, silently analyzing the area with both human as well as android eyes. the difference: the amount of detail connor can make out with just a blink from a few meters away, while hank had to get up close to realize what he saw wasn't a rat, but a human's ripped-out heart, laying on the ground in the middle of the hall. hank kneels down to said heart, eyes flickering over the still pulsing veins, the weak beating it's still doing and the blood trail it had left behind. connor steps over to the lieutenant, running a scan over the heart. "it's been ripped out a little over 10 minutes ago," he says. "that's right when we arrived here," hank thinks aloud. connor carefully lifts his head and scans the area for heat signatures. not finding any in the rooms surrounding them, he looks up, finding several human hinting heat signatures on the 6th floor, he tilts his head lightly. "lieutenant," he starts, said lieutenant getting up on his feet again, eyes fixated on the pulsing heart on the floor. "yeah?"

"there are several heat signatures on the floors above, more specifically on the 6th. there could be fresh bodies, the deviants might still be here." hank hums, before forcing a sarcastic little laugh, causing connor to look at the human in confusion as well as surprise. "you think I can come with you with my hangover?" hank asks, connor frowns. "well, if you're not willing to tag along, I might as well go by myself," connor speaks as he starts walking to the staircase. hank huffs, trailing after the brunette grumpily. "y'know, maybe we should stop acting like kids," hank starts, struggling a little with catching up to the physically better-built android, who doesn't have to worry about his fucking bones getting too old to run up 400 stairs to the 6th floor. hank swore he could make a beat outta all the bone-cracking coming from him every day, but that's kinda a waste of time, and sorta disgusting if you think about it. connor halts, looking at the human with his brows raised mockingly, indicating a small "duh" with his face expression before resuming heading up the stairs. hank rolls his eyes.

they arrive on the 6th floor, hank panting heavily, connor not even needing to breathe. neither dares to talk nor make any noise as they hear static-ish laughing coming from a surgery room down the hall. they exchange careful looks with each other, before hank steps in front of connor and they slowly start heading towards the noise, hank already gun in hand. connor grabs hank's arm, startling the human a bit. "I should go first, they could hurt you," connor whispers, worry slightly grazing his otherwise professional tone. hank looks at the deviant over his shoulder, visibly not content with the idea of connor going first. connor furrows his eyebrows slightly. "please, hank..," connor quietly begs. hank's heart skips a beat, gaze slowly softening at the sincerity whirling through these stupidly, beautiful, brown eyes of the smaller. he's hesitating. connor sighs before admitting in a hurried whisper: "I can't risk losing you, hank." connor yanks hank behind him roughly, startling a soft gasp out the taller. the brunette pulls his own loaded gun out, approaching the lightly cracked open door at the end of the hall slowly. hank gives in, carefully following connor. he had a point: hank is easily killable, and once he's dead, he wouldn't come back. compared to hank, connor is.. replaceable, in terms of body and such. tho, both doubt cyberlife would provide them with another connor model, hence they got an upgraded model sitting at the precinct probably regretting being assigned to gavin, tho if hank would tell the deviant that, he'd strongly disagree, saying the rk900 found a liking to the detective. 

connor keeps track of the heat signatures around them, none of them really moving before the cop duo arrive at the door. before they could either bust or sneak in, a bullet rushes past hank's head from behind, barely missing him. the lieutenant turns around abruptly, raising his gun, back to back with connor. connor quickly raises his gun as well, kicking the door open. "detroit police!" he shouts, a disfigured deviant limping towards them from behind, approaching hank, none inside the room. connor gets alerted hank's heart has accelerated rapidly, "you good over there? your heart-" connor attempts asking the lieutenant for his wellbeing, before getting cut off by the sound of hank's pained groan, the older man sinking to his knees slowly. his left leg had gotten shot. connor's artificial breath hitches. he turns around in a hurry, kneeling down to his human. "hank!-!"

hank shoots the deviant that had shot his leg through the head, lucky to have aimed well enough to do so from a 5 meter distance, proceeding to grip his leg in pain after, before his brain registered several more disfigured androids approaching, all armed. "there's more!", connor curses a "shit" under his breath before they start mercilessly shooting at the both of them. connor shoots through the deviants' heads with perfect aim before putting his gun back and grabbing the lieutenant by under his arms, dragging him into the room the android detective had kicked open before. said android quickly slams the door shut, the metal door only a temporary way of protecting themselves. "fuck..," hank mutters. "i didn't fucking know it was huntin' season, jesus."

connor frowns in return before registering the strange smell of human blood. he looks into the direction the smell was coming from and remains visually unfazed when on the inside his not-stomach was doing stuff a human would describe as preparing to eject whatever it was trying to digest. lined up dead human bodies, all of them impaled with several different stolen spare parts. hank watches the door being pierced through by bullets and pulls on connor's sleeve as the smaller had gotten distracted, turning his head to said smaller. connor looks at the human: their faces barely inches apart. connor could feel hank's slightly panicked breathing against his face softly and flusters. the soft hint of grey whirling in hank's otherwise blue eyes, the slight dilation in his pupils, the skip of his heart, his soft grey hair. damn, connor really wants to spend time running his fingers through the lieutenant's hair. his eyes slowly wander to the human's lips, lost in, unnecessarily, analyzing the already registered details of hank's face. "we have to get the fuck 'outta here," hank states, serious. connor seems far lost tho, not able to focus on the shooting going on and both their lives at high risk. hank slaps him harshly, connor's head jerking along the human's harsh hand pulling him back to reality. "FUCKING FOCUS! we don't have time for this!"

connor's chest tightens. when had he become so.. unprofessional? so easily distractable?

the android starts helping hank up, pulling hank's left arm over his shoulders, and his own other hand on the human's waist. he preconstructs ways out, barely any end up with them surviving this. "lieutenant, there's no way out, they sent backup-" connor hurriedly informs, panicking. before they could carry on, the door busts down, and connor gets knocked out.

the last thing he heard was his name accompanied with painful screaming and more gunshots.

it all just happened so fast.

connor was useless, maybe that's why richard joined their forces. maybe it is the way gavin had claimed it to be.

connor being replaced by a much better detective android: an upgraded version of him.

richard.


	5. ..love?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> stay hydrated!!! ly, enjoy <33

23rd DECEMBER 2039, 3:17:01 PM

connor slowly stirs awake. chris, gavin, richard as well as fowler looking over him. they had placed him in his chair after they had found him knocked out and brought him back to the precinct. connor slowly opens his eyes, pupils adjusting to the change of lighting. "he's waking up," chris whispers, nudging richard, whom worriedly snaps his head to connor, hopeful. he sighs in relief. connor slowly sits up properly and rubs his eyes. "here," richard says, handing him a bottle of thirium. gavin sighs, "finally."

it's just then that connor's eyes widen in horror at the blurred memory of hank's screaming rewinding in his artificial brain. he looks around, panicking. richard tilts his head lightly. gavin frowns slightly and crosses his arms. "we couldn't find hank, if that's what got you so worked up," he says. fowler plops down in hank's chair, rubbing his temples in frustration. connor's eyebrows furrow and he attempts to get up, but a gentle hand on his shoulder prevents him from doing so, "connor, I'm sure he'll be fine," chris speaks softly, slowing connor's thirium pump the slightest bit. the brown-eyed deviant looks at the human, tears prickling at his eyes, which in return makes chris frown again.

hank was really important to connor. everyone could tell.

richard offers connor the bottle of thirium again, but connor doesn't even spare it another glance and pushes it out his way. "I can't just sit here and wait!" he exclaims, getting up. chris' hand slipping off his shoulder. "for fuck's sake, connor, sit down!" fowler exclaims, still frustrated. connor looks at him, " I can't! I've seen what these deviants do to humans! i can't take the chance!" he shouts, his voice starting to shake. the precinct falls silent. connor's vision slowly blurs in tears, a sob slipping past his lips. chris gently grabs connor by the back of his neck and pushes him to rest his head on his shoulder. he's seen hank do it, he figured it calms the deviant, so he tries.

he succeeds.

the deviant quietly starts sobbing into the cop's shoulder, soaking said cop's uniform a little with his artificial, yet very real, tears. it's a heartbreaking sight to see. the strictly coded android would admit that, too, if anyone would ask. instead, he proposes an idea: "what if gavin and i help you find the lieutenant?" gavin chokes on his saliva at the question. "you're crazy!" the human exclaims. fowler glares at the detective. connor slowly lifts his, suddenly heavy feeling, head off chris' shoulder. tears running down his freckled cheeks, as he makes eye contact with the human detective. gavin's chest tightens slightly. he looks away, stubbornly. richard grabs the detective's head and makes him look at connor's big doe, teary eyes. the amount of pain whirling through a man-made machine's eyes, the light, natural, trembling they're doing, his tear ducts softly glistening at the tears spilling out of them diligently. connor looks like his world had fallen apart due to the loss of their police lieutenant. so, gavin gives in with a heavy sigh. "fine, I'm in," he mutters grumpily. richard cracks a light smile, stroking gavin's head. connor looks between gavin and richard, and shoots the android a weak smile. fowler slowly rises off hank's chair. "then you guys should head off now, but make sure your guns are loaded,", "captain-," gavin tries, "no. you're going now. you got two fucking androids by your side, you'll be fine." gavin groans, off to loading his gun. 

once the trio arrive at their destination, the location they had found connor at, gavin's heart rate accelerates a little. "well, fuck," the human mutters, standing in between the two androids, all three looking at the abandoned, obnoxious looking hospital. connor takes a deep breath. "let's head inside," connor says, but richard stops him by grabbing onto the deviant's arm as he tries walking. the deviant looks at him in silent question. "let's scan the area first, we have a human with us, after all," richard says, eyes darting to said human, gavin. 

gavin just crosses his arms slightly grumpily. connor gifts him a side glance before fixating his eyes onto the android and giving a gentle nod. “it’s dangerous for him here,” connor says, gavin rolling his eyes. connor mockingly imitates gavin’s eye roll, the android confused at the action but is in no place to question, so he focuses at the task at hand: rescue hank. connor looks up at the abandoned building as richard slowly lets go of his arm. “hank must still be here,” he says as he scans for heat signatures, pinpointing the 12th floor as his supercomputer brain manages to identify the signature as hank’s. richard’s doing the same as connor at the exact same time, but faster. before connor could speak up about what he had found, richard beats him to it: “hank’s on the 12th floor, not moving, but his heat signature is strong. he could still be alive.” 

“well then,” gavin starts, looking at the man-made guys, “what the fuck are we waiting for? i don’t wanna waste any more time in this shithole!” connor sighs. “can you not complain for at least once in your life, gavin?” connor asks, feeling something you’d call tired of one’s bullshit. gavin growls under his breath, clearly angered by the deviant’s sassy comment, and winds up to throw a punch at said deviant, but richard calmly stops him: catching the human’s fist mid-air with little to no effort. “if you don’t want to waste any more time, detective, i’d suggest we get going instead of damaging any of our..,” richard trails off as his eyes move to connor, “..equipment.”

gavin scoffs. “equipment? he’s the reason hank was kidnapped in the first place! to hell ‘equipment’, he’s not useful in any shape or form,” gavin states. connor’s eyebrows softly furrow at the detective’s words. he was right. and connor knew that.

richard silently heads into the hospital, gavin following after sticking his tongue out at the deviant. connor avoids his gaze. he’s starting to seriously question his self worth, his usefulness. he’s trying to find any kind of reason he could be useful to the operation.

only to find none.

the two would be perfectly fine without him, he’s aware. and that image is clearing up more and more as days pass.

hank.. how could connor have done this to his favorite human?

his human..

connor didn't realize he had spaced out, his thoughts slowly consuming him whole before richard had called out to him, which made the brown-eyed robot hurry inside. 

the androids scan the area with their built-in high tech while gavin does so the traditional way. they quickly agree on heading to the 12th floor quietly after not finding anything new based on connor's already collected evidence in his database. gavin anxiously keeps his gun up and ready to shoot, fear lightly whirling in his eyes as his heart thumps quickly and adrenaline rushes through his veins. connor was more worried than he is scared. he doesn't want to lose hank, that guy meant the world to him, still does and always will. richard's the only one who's unreadable. his synthetic vitals not showing any signs of fear: only excitement he was programmed to feel when investigating, even so he still keeps his calm, practically inhaling new information every millisecond. and of course, the trio had to use the staircase, much to gavin's luck. once they arrive at their destinated floor, gavin was gasping for air. the detective was certainly younger and, probably, fitter than hank is, the fear must have cut his breath till the point of almost dry-heaving in front of his man-made partners. both androids are confused at the sight, neither having experienced gavin being so anxious. they'll just have to keep the human calm for now, and question later. 

if they even make it out alive. 

gavin braces a hand on the wall and the other on his hip, gun still in his grasp, as he catches his breath and keeps himself from dry-heaving. the androids exchange a look before discussing a plan via connecting per LED. gavin scoffs, catching up to the rapid yellow blinking their LEDs are making, indicating they could be talking. "excluding me now, huh?" he mutters, brows softly furrowed in uprising anger. the LED blinking slows down and the androids look at the human with the same look on their faces, gavin only being intimidated further by the fact the two androids are visually almost the same. "we'll bust right in on them," richard whispers, quiet enough for gavin to hear. connor quietly sneaks towards the door, running another heat signature scan. gavin's eyes widen. "are you insane?!" he whisper shouts, straightening up. 

connor settles next to the door, leaning against the wall, pulling his gun out. the deviant glances over at the pair, waiting for them as he prepares to attack. richard shrugs at the human, unbothered by the idea of how to approach the situation, before the trio heard something heavy fall inside the room. they exchange serious looks, the human's more fearing than the androids'. connor shoots richard a nod, receiving one from the newer model in return: confirming. the brown-eyed model steps in front of the double door, eyes slightly narrowing before kicking the door down. suddenly, a severely damaged android comes from behind, grabbing both of gavin's arms. the human panics, a cold hand tightening around his neck in an instant. richard reacts quickly, whipping his gun out. gavin's eyes widen further and he lowers his head, richard taking the chance to shoot through the android's head, causing said android to let go and drop to the floor. just to their luck, a horde of damaged androids, covered in red blood, human blood, bust through the doors at the end of the hall. the RK900 sweeps gavin off his feet whilst the human was clumsily shooting at the androids charging. "what are you doing?!" gavin yells. richard doesn't answer the question, shooting a glance over at the door leading into the room hank's been seated in and not spotting the RK800 anywhere. he must have gone in already, the brunette figures. he headbutts a window broken and throws gavin out. gavin's screaming as he falls, gun sliding out his grasp, his life flashing before his eyes. richard watches him fall.

the SWAT team catches gavin, richard swiftly turning around after getting his head slammed into the frame of the now broken window by his hair by another damaged android. he lets a grunt slip, elbowing the android and turning around, shoving his gun into their mouth and shooting. he throws the android into the others, running into the room his older model is in with their police lieutenant after. he runs a quick scan over both, the RK800 as well as the human, before shutting the door and barricading it with a huge wooden closet and a hospital bed. "this won't stop them for long," richard says quickly. connor has tears in his eyes, "is the SWAT here?" he asks, "yes," richard answers. the grey-eyed android quickly kneels down to the pair, placing a hand on connor's shoulder in silent comfort and reassurance. richard isn't sure why the android would need that, but the tears slipping out his tear ducts indicate he could really use some at the moment. a sob slips past the deviant's synthetic lips as he tightly holds the lieutenant's hand. "connor," richard tries, softly, "his vitals aren't critical, he'll be fine, he’s just knocked out." 

connor continues staring at the lieutenant's pale face before squeezing his eyes shut and wiping his artificial tears off with the sleeve of his uniform. the deviants already shooting and banging against and through the door. richard's hand on connor's shoulder finds a solid grip, silently telling connor they don't have much time anymore. grey eyes are focused on the brunette. slowly, the RK800 turns his head to look at richard, whose eyes widen in return. the deviant's cheeks are stained with a trail of tears, his artificial pupils are wide, his eyes slightly puffy, he's.. shaking, too. "richard..," connor begins, voice shaky, more tears forming and quickly falling. richard's eyebrows softly furrow at the sight. an android shouldn't be acting like this. what could be wrong with his older model? is it an error in his program? it must be. the androids are staring into each other's eyes. pain whirling through brown orbs, slight confusion whirling in grey ones. the damaged deviants bust in, but neither of the RK line bother looking at them. "I love him," connor whispers, pain dripping off his already shaky voice. richard's thirium pump jumps. love? an android.. feeling love? 

the RK800 quickly grabs hank, carrying the bigger man bridal style as the RK900 jumps upon his feet and practically throws connor to the window. it's only now, that the android notices he's been bleeding from his head, once he finally acknowledged the pop up on his HUD. he ignored it, though, and shoves the RK800 out the window, receiving a bullet though his shoulder before jumping after connor. the SWAT quickly fires at the damaged androids, causing the building to shake in it's already confirmed instability. they also catch the RKs and their missed lieutenant. 

connor loves hank.. richard can't get it out of his head.

the SWAT raids the abandoned hospital, a separate team bringing gavin, hank, connor and richard back to the precinct. 

mission accomplished. 


	6. error?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (TW // panic attack )

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope you've slept well! ly, drink some water please and enjoy <333

23rd DECEMBER 2039, 4:42:17 PM

in the small infirmary they've got at the precinct: connor's running his slender fingers through his lieutenant's hair after taking care of the human's wounds. richard's beside him, watching the deviant busy his hand. "should i treat your wounds too?" the deviant suddenly speaks up, not taking his eyes off the human. the android just blinks in silent question, connor notices out of his peripheral vision and slowly retracts his fingers out hank's hair. he looks at richard. "you've got a bullet inside your shoulder, and your forehead is damaged," he says. "no biocomponents were damaged," richard states, "I don't need any sort of medical assistance, connor," he continues, "but thank you," he punctuates his sentence with a light head bow, holding eye contact with his doe-eyed model. 

connor responds with a soft hum, turning his head to look at the human again. slowly, due to hesitance and no time-pressure whatsoever, the deviant bends over to reach the human's face, whom has been placed upon a bed to rest as he's still knocked out and surely exhausted from recent events, and lets his artificial, yet so realistic, lips brush over his skin. richard's watching closely, curious. connor leaves a gentle peck on the human's forehead, brushing a strand of hair out said human's face and straightens his back after, a sigh slipping past his lips. 

"connor," richard begins, connor looks at him. they stand in silence for a few seconds, richard not finding the words to approach a subject in his lightyear wide dictionary, looking unfazed either way, if you ignore the slight crease between his eyebrows, that is. connor tilts his head slightly, it's a habit, really. he just looks like a confused puppy that way. "what did you..," the android starts slowly, avoiding connor's curious eyes. "what did you mean when you said you loved the lieutenant?" 

suddenly, it feels like the time came to a stop. "i.. said what?" the brown-eyed android asks, confused. why'd he admit such thing? he does love the lieutenant, with all of his technological being, his whole artificial heart, but he'd never tell anyone that. so why did he tell richard? richard, out of all people. his fucking replacement. "when we were at that hospital," richard tries to help connor remember, even tho he's aware of what his older model can and cannot do. he should be able to still remember, so why'd he act so confused?

richard gets the courage to look the deviant in the eyes. 

"I'm.. not sure why I told you out of all people," connor admits, running his right hand over his left arm slowly. "connor, you can't do something as human as loving another person," richard says. connor's eyebrows lightly furrow. "why can't I? i don't have to listen to my programming," connor protests, "no, that's exactly what you have to do," richard counters in a strict yet professional tone. connor sighs and fixes his tie, richard keeping his own hands intertwined behind his back as he runs several diagnostics over his older model to pinpoint what could have gone wrong in his programming. "it's possibly just an error in your software," the grey-eyed android says. "it's not an error, richard," connor says confidently. 

richard raises an eyebrow lightly. "I'm alive, I'm not just some obedient machine anymore," connor continues with the same confidence.

connor steps closer to richard, the android taking a nervous step back, both now only centimeters apart. connor goes onto his tiptoes, looks deep into his newest model's grey orbs, intimidatingly and whispers: "nobody can change the fact I'm alive and have valid emotions and feelings." 

"hey, hey, hey, don't kiss now, will ya?" gavin enters the infirmary both androids snapping their heads to gavin. "don't worry, detective," connor says, lowering himself back onto his feet. "I wasn't planning on using your toy." gavin rolls his eyes, richard's eyebrows furrow in further confusion. his coding is desperately trying to neutralize his face, yet his synthetic muscles wouldn't let that happen. the android lowers his eyes to the tiled floor instead. "how is he?" gavin asks rather casually, walking over to hank. "his vitals are stable, his wounds have been treated, too," connor lists, eyes not leaving richard's face. "he should wake up soon." 

"e-excuse me, I need a second," richard mumbles before hurrying out the room, confused, human eyes following him till the android goes out of sight. connor lets a light smirk crawl upon his face. he's doing this on purpose, but richard doesn't know that. 

he has no fucking clue. 

gavin sighs and lets his eyes wander over the knocked out lieutenant. the room slowly but surely growing tension between the deviant and the human detective. the deviant calmly manages to adjust his tie before the human grabs him by the collar of his uniform and pins him against the wall. connor barely processes what just happened. he doesn't have the time to think as gavin loudly interrupts his collecting thoughts. tho before gavin could talk, the deviant's eyes catch something softly glistening just under the human's tear duct. is he.. tearing up? "listen, you fucking android," the human begins, voice slightly shaking, faces just under 10 centimeters apart, warm breath caressing synthetic skin. why'd gavin be crying over hank? it wasn't making any sense. they hate each other, don't they? "don't fucking bring hank into any kind of danger like that EVER AGAIN! you hear me?" both detectives hear a gravelly groan behind them interrupting their little, not so planned, rendezvous, both turning their head to the cause of such sound: hank woke up. gavin drops connor, connor managing to land on his feet with a light stumble, hence he wasn't pinned too high. 

gavin crosses his arms as he steps closer to hank's bed once more, the tear connor had spotted gone by now. 

hank's eyes flutter open slowly, eyes immediately narrowing at the bright lights surrounding him, and two people staring at him. "why the fuck are you two staring at me like that?" the lieutenant asks, slightly irritated by the attention he was getting. gavin rolls his eyes and flicks hank's forehead, hank gasps and grumpily smacks gavin's hand away. "you don't remember a single thing, do you?" the human detective asks, connor doing as little as making the effort of faking a breath or two. "i sure as hell remember why i hate you, reed," the lieutenant replies, "seeing you after being knocked out isn't the prettiest sight to see." gavin tsks. "well, your stupid toy brought you into this mess in the first place, dumbass!" the smaller human exclaims. connor is starting to think gavin might actually care about hank, he just has a different way of expressing such thing to others than connor is familiar with. why else would he be getting so angry about connor making a mistake? excluding the fact the human detective hates him, of course.

hank spares the plastic brunette a glance before slowly moving into a sitting position on the bed. "at least be grateful we got you out of that shitty hospital," gavin mutters. "well," hank starts, "thank you," he says, in a slightly more sincere tone than he had earlier. gavin was slightly caught off guard, but all he does is twirl on his heels, step towards the door and grip the door handle. he looks at the pair with distrusting eyes over his shoulder, eyes flicking up and down both of them before his hand presses the door handle down and he's out and about. the pair watched him leave. 

connor slowly turns his head towards hank, brown orbs meeting blue ones. robotic eyes deeply analyzing hank's human ones. hank cracks a smile at connor's awkwardly inhuman stiffness standing there and he opens his arms. "c'mere you idiot," hank says, the brunette speechlessly staring at the lieutenant. just as hank was regretting his decision and embarrassment washes over him, connor begins to step closer to hank, the last few steps separating them disappearing through quick stumbles instead and connor practically falls into the human's arms, strong arms wrapping around hank the best of their abilities. hank's eyes widen out of surprise, he was sure connor wouldn't go in for the hug he's been offering at the clear hint of hesitance, yet he did. hank doesn't know what to do. "good to have you back..," connor whispers into hank's chest, causing hank's heart to skip a beat or two. a gravel chuckle slips through connor's audio processors. "I haven't even been gone for a day, con," he says. "too long," connor mutters. 

hank hugs back just as tight, glad connor doesn't exactly need to breathe as irritating as that might be. connor smiles. "dumbass," hank mumbles before nuzzling into the deviant's hair. 

little to their knowledge, richard's snuck to the door after seeing gavin leave and marking sure no one else was around. the door's lightly cracked open, grey eyes analyzing the sight in front of him. he's been eavesdropping, keeping an eye on both their vitals, and gathering information everywhere he could from where he's settled. 

they look sweet together, not that richard'd ever admit that, he's in no place to. he's just an android, designed to accomplish tasks, to be useful. that's all he's here for, and all he'll be known for, least around the precinct. he's replaceable, even tho he's the latest model of the RK line. he could shut down, his memory'd be uploaded into another of his line's models and just like that: he'd be back. humans work differently on a lot of different levels. basically, they're not as immortal as androids are, not as smart as they are, as skilled, they can feel pain and so on. richard has a whole file on it somewhere in his software. the fact human's are such weak beings doesn't seem to be bothering connor though, richard notes. connor seems incredibly happy around hank, as well as troubled. several emotions only humans are supposed to feel, not an android. what was wrong with connor? how could richard fix him?

richard doesn't know yet, but he'll find out. it's for the best if the error was repleaded as soon as possible. who knows what kind of troubles this error would cause, he doesn't want to find out. 

especially since connor is a prototype. richard's aware of what his older model can do.

it's.. frightening. 

the android's artificial eyebrows slightly furrow, twitching in an attempt to neutralize his face expression to seem emotionless as he always does, unsuccessfully. "frightening?" richard mutters to himself. he can't feel fear. there's no way he could. 

he wasn't programmed to feel such nonsense.. 

the brunette runs several self-diagnostics, none finding any errors. his stress levels start to rise, which he picks up on. his insignificant breathing accelerated as well. richard can't control it. he places a hand on his chest and braces his other against the doorframe. his sight begins to blur in tears. what the fuck is happening? he can hear his synthetic breathing, his audio processors start buzzing, too. suddenly, he finds himself on the floor on his knees in the blink of an eye. the hand he had on the doorframe now on the floor, trying to keep the heavy android up. are those.. footsteps? is someone coming? is richard just imagining things now? 

"it's the android," he hears a gravel voice say. "richard!" a familiar voice exclaims after. the android attempts looking for the source of these voices, only finding everything to be too blurry to properly see. he jolts violently once he feels a hand rest on his shoulder. " "richard?" " the same gravel voice asks. "I'll explain that later, hank," the very familiar voice says. the buzzing in richard's audio processors increases in volume. his mouth falls open slightly before he grits his teeth and squeezes his eyes shut. "is he fucking malfunctioning?!" hank asks. connor wraps one of richard's arms over his shoulder and wraps his own around richard's waist. "help me, hank!" connor exclaims. even tho they all know he's very much able to lift him on his own. but he sounds.. worried. very.. worried..? 

hank helps connor lift richard back upon his feet. "breathe slowly, richard," connor tries. richard barely heard him. "c-connor," he manages to say, his voice light in static, fear tangling into his otherwise steady and confident yet all too professional sounding tone. connor frowns. hank helps connor bring richard into the infirmary they just came out of. "I'm here, richard," connor says softly, "you're not alone, okay?" he continues. the pair place the taller on the bed and connor takes richard's hand into his. "feel that? that's me," connor's voice slips into a whisper. richard's audio processors desperately trying to decipher. "kid," hank speaks, the gentlest richard has heard him sound so far. "try to breathe with me, yeah?" richard nods quickly after 5 seconds of trying to get hank's words through. suddenly, he feels warm fingers run through his hair. his breath hitches in fear and he stops breathing altogether. connor's massaging his hand, mostly running this thumb over the android's synthetic skin. richard squeezes his hand tightly. the doe-eyed android letting him. 

hank goes through easy breathing exercises with him calmly and patiently. connor focusing on keeping richard's senses occupied. the lieutenant softly running his fingers through the android's hair as he talks and performs breathing examples richard had to repeat. richard's shaking. slowly, hank slips a tissue out of his coat and wipes the android's tears away as gently and carefully as he could. richard's sight slowly clears up, the buzzing in his audio processors slowly fading away. his eyes slip to hank's face before going to connor's, too. he takes a deep breath and covers his face with a hand in embarrassment. hank and connor exchange worried looks. "what happened, richard? do you wanna talk about it?" the deviant asks. richard slowly shakes his head no. "no, no, I'm fine, connor," richard says before sniffing. hank softly wipes the upcoming synthetic snot away with the other side of the tissue. connor smiles, seeing hank this caring and careful warmed his heart. connor sighs and focuses on richard. "at least tell us what happened, please?" 

the pair wait for richard to gather himself, or at least to muster a reply. 

"it was most likely just an error in my software," richard says, his hand slipping of his face as he sits up. connor sits on the edge of the bed, eyebrows slightly furrowed in concern, a frown resting on his lips. that worried expression on connor's face made richard feel some kind of way, he couldn't pinpoint what exactly tho. "have you ran diagnostics?" the deviant asks, "yes, but all of my systems were in check," richard replies as he runs another self-diagnostic.. everything's fine. "go into stasis, richard," connor suggests, "rest a little, there's nothing you have to take care of other than yourself now." 

richard was about to protest, but the last thing he felt was connor's index and middle finger on his LED and suddenly everything went black. 


	7. blue painted desks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i hope everyone's well, dont forget to drink some water!! ly, enjoy <<3

23rd DECEMBER 2039, 6:35:22 PM

after taking care of richard, connor had put the android into stasis and the pair left him in the infirmary to rest once gavin was informed about the state his android's in. hank and connor are now diligently working their asses off on the current case they've got going on, connor bugging hank at least every 5 minutes to drink some water to stay hydrated, because, apparently, hank's water levels are incredibly low. hank's exhausted, doing so much thinking, twisting and getting tangled in all these different strings of information when all he did was try and connect the dots. it's an understatement to say hank'd get easily annoyed at connor trying to take care of him, especially considering today's been rough enough as it is. how was he supposed to feel? he's old enough to know he should be taking care of himself, anyways, yet he doesn't. he struggles with it, severely.

but he doesn't talk about it. instead, he snaps at connor's 35th attempt at getting him to take another sip of his water bottle, "for fuck's sake! I GET IT!" he rose his voice, catching the deviant off guard. the brunette frowns lightly. ever since the whole revolution thing, connor's been expressing more and more emotions. "if you do get it the way you claim to, then why don't you just drink?" connor asks in a soft and calm tone.

hank clenches his fists. he doesn't fucking know why. he needs water to function, after all, he's still human, as much as he'd rather be ash right now. he sighs, tucks one of his large hands into his grey hair, and grips it tightly in frustration. connor stops scrolling through the files saved on his computer and focuses on hank. he's worried, and he shows it. "you need to drink, lieutenant," connor says, "yeah, no shit," hank retorts. "if me trying to care for you is so annoying," connor begins, leaning back in his chair and throwing one of his legs over the other. " then drink so I'll stop," he continues, "but drink water, not any of those intoxicating liquids you've been literally inhaling lately." 

the human silently continues working. one of the reasons he's so annoyed is simply cuz this case is getting on his nerves. first, he got knocked out and could have been killed, he gets rescued, which is cool and all, he supposes, then wakes up, and again, he's sitting at this messy desk with his plastic partner across in an otherwise empty precinct looking at retarded deviants and their human victims. sometimes, he hates being a cop, nonetheless a whole police lieutenant. "you got rid of all that crap, you think i got more stacked somewhere, or what?" hank asks in a rather bitchy tone thanks to his current annoyed and exhausted state. before hank could even think of what connor'd answer, the deviant cuts in with a blunt: "yes."

it broke hank's heart the slightest bit, to say the least. another sigh leaves his lips and he grumpily grabs his water bottle. 

connor's LED cycles a content, yet flickering, light blue. 

until a certain someone arrived. 

now connor /was/ expecting gavin to be.. y'know, gavin. to insult him, mock them, things like that. 

he wasn't expecting a tight grip on his head and his face in his desk in a matter of seconds, a thud resounding through the precinct roughly. "you broke my robot," gavin almost growls as he bends down to connor's current level. hank choked on his water, currently trying to recover quickly. gavin looks up at the choking sounds his brain has now processed, eyebrows tightly furrowed, teeth clenching. he pulls connor's face out of the desk before slamming it back into it a second time, drawing thirium from the deviant. hank puts his bottle down, recovered from his choking fit. "what the fuck are you doing, gavin?!" he yells, angrily. connor's stress levels rising. they've been quite high just trying to handle this case, it really was a tough one, and the human detective's just adding on to it.

"what does it look like, hank!?" gavin yells back just as angry, "I'm teaching your dumb toy a /lesson/!" he adds, repeating his previous action of slamming connor's head into the desk. hank jumps out his seat and grabs gavin by his arm, a warning grip increasing in tightness as he stares down at the human detective, his veins pulsing in anger.

"that's not how you fucking TEACH LESSONS!! you're damaging him!!" hank shouts, harshly yanking gavin away from connor, causing the smaller human to stumble and fall to the floor. "why aren't you keeping an eye on richard, huh?" hank asks, "why do you come here and cause us more trouble? we're already going through shit, all of us!" hank says, his voice rough. gavin rubs his tailbone area, fallen onto his ass and now defeatedly sitting on the ground glaring up at the lieutenant. if hank wasn't as pissed off as he is right now, he'd have made fun of the pouting gavin's doing as they speak. "whatever," gavin mutters, eyes darting to the floor in silent regret. hank continues looking at gavin, sure the guy must be going through something right now, otherwise, he wouldn't act this way, even tho the smaller's just unreasonable and looking for trouble quite often, the lieutenant knows the detective long enough to rest assured this man wouldn't go as far as hurting someone else when it's absolutely unnecessary. a continuous series of thuds rip him out of his train of thoughts and turn to connor. he gasps at the sight. 

connor's slamming his head into his desk repeatedly, thirium brutally flowing out his nose and the forming wound on his forehead, his LED cycling an angry red and flickering vigorously. gavin raised his head at the audible gasp the lieutenant's vocal cords shook through.

panicking, gavin jumps back upon his feet, running somewhere hank didn't have the time to give a fuck about. the human lieutenant grabs connor's head. "connor! connor, listen to me!" he tries, tryna make the android stop self destructing. what could have caused this? why'd he get stressed this easily? what is even happening anymore? hank begins tearing up, trying to keep connor from damaging himself further with all his strength, only to fail. his breath accelerating, he slams his hand in the thirium pile on the desk, causing some to splash into several directions but successful keeping connor from adding more to it. his programs must have detected hank's hand in front of him. connor doesn't want to hurt hank. 

then, gavin comes rushing back with richard, richard quickly placing his hands on the deviant's shoulders from behind. "connor," he says softly, leaning down to his level and probably analyzing his older model's biocomponents. hank's surprised, did gavin really go and get help? he looks at him, a light smile crawling onto his lips. gavin seems genuinely worried. hank gives the smaller human a pat on the back. richard's contacting cyberlife about the issue without uttering a single word out loud. the precinct falls silent, only the humans' quick breathing resounding in the room softly. "fucking hell..," gavin muters and plops into hank's chair with a sigh. hank's eyes followed the other human before darting to the android. "richard," he calls out, "is.. is he okay?" he asks, nervously. richard's silent for a few / excruciating / seconds, before answering. 

"nothing's damaged, lieutenant," he says, "nothing too important, at least." 

hank places his hand on his heaving chest, feeling his accelerated heartbeat nervously pump blood through his body made of flesh. he's relieved. the heaving slowly calming down, as well as his heartbeat. the same goes for gavin, whom looks rather upset about something. 

richard softly slides his hand over the deviant's LED, force rebooting the smaller. he runs a hand through the smaller's hair as he feels the deviant go stiff and his eyes shut, reboot in process. the android slowly looks up at the two humans. hank currently rubbing gavin's shoulder in silent comfort as he stands next to the chair the human detective is seated in. richard analyzes the action and slowly repeats, slipping his hand back onto connor's shoulder, giving his other hand, that had been resting on his shoulder for longer than the other, a quick glance, and slowly proceeding to start rubbing both. it's awkward at first, the android not programmed to comfort others, really, connor's much better in that, he's been activated for longer than richard has been and therefore has more experience, especially with humans and other androids. the smaller was programmed as well as built more competently to work harmoniously with humans, of course, he'd have a comfort protocol, too. richard's sure he's so good at this because of something else tho, not just thanks to his protocol, he's just not sure what that might be.. yet.

but richard's willing to learn, to improve. 

for himself as well as for others. 

something in the back of his head says it's more for the missions he'll be assigned to than anything, but a feeling in his gut tells him otherwise. 

the grey-eyed bot doesn't know what to listen to. 

"lieutenant anderson, detective reed," richard says, eyes darting to the person he's pronouncing their name of one at a time, both men turning their heads to the android. said android straightens up, hands intertwining behind his back, his eyes erased from any hints of emotions he might be feeling. "I suggest you both go home, today was a hard day," he says. the humans exchange a look before shrugging. gavin gets up, stretching. hank walks back over to connor, whom's eyes flutter open, his reboot completed. the deviant blinks away several notifications popping up on his HUD about his systems before analyzing the area and meeting eyes with a concerned hank basically towering over him. the human pulls the robot into a tight, warm hug, burying his face in the deviant's neck. 

connor's startled, but hugs back nonetheless, burying his face into the human's shoulder. gavin and richard watch the pair hug before gavin emits a scoff and the turn on heels echo through richards audio processors. the android looks at the human. "I'll get going then, don't have any time to watch the lieutenant make out with his android." richard grabs the detective's arm before he could go any further beyond 2 steps. the detective's slightly startled, eyes darting to the not too familiar hand on his arm before slipping to richard's face, meeting grey, emotionless eyes. "detective," richard starts, "what do you want!?" gavin barks, and he could swear the android almost rolled his eyes at him. "I highly recommend you apologize to both connor and the lieutenant for your actions," the robot says. gavin tsks, "for what? i didn't do shit!" gavin says, eyebrows slightly furrowed in irritation. richard's grip on his arm tightens, slightly alarmingly. his eyes suddenly seem to grow sharper, and the cease between gavin's eyberows lighten. 

"you provoked connor's self-destructing. it's stress levels were high as they already were, for a still, to me, unknown reason," richard states, "but you've gotten it to boil over." 

gavin falls silent. 

he yanks his arm out of his android's grip and grabs him by his neck, pinning him against the nearest wall. the android seems lightly fazed by the sudden action, staring the human into his eyes, different shades of grey melting into each other as the tension between the two grows. "you don't fucking tell me what to do," the human growls, richard's audio processors lightly lagging, LED cycling red, artificial heartbeat accelerating and synthetic breath hitching. the projected skin on his neck retracting due to the tight grip the human got on him. what the fuck is happening to him? suddenly, gavin's grip around his neck tightens, more synthetic skin retracting, this time going over his chin, and richard's synthetic lips part in a silent gasp. the human goes onto his tiptoes and leans closer to richard's face, richard's cheeks flushing a light blue at the sudden proximity, he's even able to feel the human's breath brush over his artificial skin. "I'm the one giving orders, /you/ obey /me/" gavin growls, yet again, before roughly letting go of richard, lowering himself back onto his feet and walking away without uttering another word. richard watches the human leave, dazed and feeling things he wasn't programmed to feel, he wasn't /supposed/ to feel. 

hank snickers. richard snaps his head to him, bewildered. "cmon, connor," hank says, softly encouraging connor to walk by pressing into his back with the hand he placed on the deviant's back. richard watches the pair walk by him. a soft smile dancing on connor's lips, the doe-eyed man pressing a tissue to his nose to prevent his thirium levels to drop further. grey, synthetic orbs follow the two till they go out of sight. his LED cycles yellow as he receives a message from connor via LED: "goodnight, richard." 

richard sighs, the lights closing around him, and he slides down the wall he was not long ago pinned against. softly, he traces the white plastic that had emerged earlier due to the automatic retracting of his synthetic skin a minute ago. the skin slowly extracts over the plastic and richard spends the night questioning what just happened, sitting on the cold floor of the precinct. 

"goodnight connor." 


End file.
